Summary

Each of us possesses an astounding power to heal ourselves--and
it's all in our minds. This book is an invitation to awaken this healing
ability thorough inspiring images and sounds, positive perceptions, soothing
feelings, trusting confidence, and the realization of openness. The first
part presents an overview of healing meditation and principles of everyday
living. Part two presents forty-eight specific exercises for healing various
mental and physical problems. The third part presents seven Buddhist meditations
that are concerned not only with everyday problems but also with releasing
the grip of our grasping habits and awakening our enlightened nature.

You will learn:

How to develop confidence

Effective ways of approaching problems of all kinds

How to deal with physical ailments

How to discover and use healing energies in nature and within
yourself

Ways of healing physical disharmony

How to use daily life as a fountain of healing power

See also these articles:

+ Interview with Tulku Thondup, by Daniel Goleman,
New Age Journal, October, 1996.

+ The Healing Power of the Positive Mind, by Tulku
Thondup Rinpoche, Shambhala Sun, November, 1996.

1

FOUNDATIONS OF HEALING

Our minds possess the power of healing pain and creating
joy. If we use that power along with proper living, a positive attitude,
and meditation, we can heal not only our mental and emotional afflictions,
but even physical problems.

When we cling to our wants and worries with all our energy,
we create only stress and exhaustion. By loosening the attitude that Buddhists
call "grasping at self," we can open to our true nature, which is peaceful
and enlightened. This book is an invitation to the awakening of our inner
wisdom, a source of healing we all possess. Like a door opening to this
wisdom, we can bring in the sunlight, warmth, and gentle breeze of healing.
The source of this energy is ours to touch and share at any moment, a universal
birthright that can bring us joy even in a world of suffering and ceaseless
change.

In Buddhism, the wisdom taught in the scriptures is mainly
aimed at realizing enlightenment. However, spiritual exercises can also
help us find happiness and health in our everyday life. There are extensive
discourses in Buddhism on improving our ordinary life and having a peaceful,
joyous, and beneficial existence in this very world.

THE BENEFITS OF HEALING

Buddhism advocates releasing the unnecessary and unhealthy
tension that we create in our lives by realizing the truth of how things
really are. I have seen many examples of the healing power of the mind
for mental and emotional problems, and for physical sickness too.

One example is from my own life. When I was eighteen,
my dear teacher Kyala Khenpo and I decided to flee Tibet because of political
turmoil, knowing that we were losing home, country, friends, and livelihood.
In an empty but sacred valley, Kyala Khenpo died from old age and sickness.
He was not only my kind and enlightened teacher, but had cared for me as
a parent since I was five. This was one of the saddest and most confused
times of my life. However, my understanding of mpermanence-- the fact that
everything always changes in life-- made it easier to accept. Spiritual
experiences enabled me to remain calm, and the wisdom lights of teachings
made the path of my future life clearer to me. In other words, recognizing
the nature of what was happening, opening to it, and using sources of power
that I had already been given helped me heal from my loss more easily.
As we shall see, these three basic steps--acknowledging difficulties and
suffering, opening to them, and cultivating a positive attitude--are integral
to the healing process.

Another of my teachers, Pushul Lama, had mental problems
throughout his youth. He was so destructive that when he was a teenager,
his family had to tie him up to protect others--and himself--from his violence.
Through healing meditations--mainly of compassion--he healed himself and
later became a great scholar and teacher. Today I know of no person more
cheerful, peaceful, and kind.

When I lived in Tibet, physical healing through meditation
and the right attitude were a common part of everyday life. So now when
people ask me for examples of physical healing, it's not easy to figure
out which story to tell. For someone from Tibet, it is accepted as an ordinary
event that the mind can heal the body. The mind leads the energies of the
body--this is how it is. There were so many healings, I never paid much
attention when I was younger. However, I do know of one recent example
that many people might find amazing, even if it is not very surprising
from the Buddhist point of view.

A couple years ago, the present Dodrupchen Rinpoche, a
highly spiritual living lama, had an attack of severe appendicitis while
traveling in the remote countryside of Bhutan. A senior minister of the
country arranged for a helicopter to take him to a hospital. The doctors
were afraid Rinpoche's appendix would rupture, and the pain was very great.
Against the strong advice of his doctors, he refused surgery and healed
himself using meditations and mantras.

ANYONE CAN BENEFIT

The ability to recover from such a serious sickness through
meditation depends on a person's level of trust and spiritual experience.
Of course, most of us would be very glad to have the opportunity for surgery
if our appendix were about to burst! I only tell this true story to illustrate
the power of the mind, and because people have such a strong interest in
maintaining their physical health. Few of us are spiritual masters. But
anyone can benefit from meditation and a positive attitude. Beginning from
where we are right now, it is possible to live a happier and healthier
life.

Although physical sickness is one subject you will read
about here, this book is meant mostly as a manual for dealing with our
everyday emotions. This is the best starting place for most of us. If we
can learn to bring greater contentment into everything we do, other blessings
will naturally flow.

The views and meditation exercises in this book are inspired
mainly by teachings of Nyingma Buddhism, the oldest school of Buddhism
in Tibet, dating to the ninth century, a school that combines the three
major Buddhist traditions: Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. However,
you need not be a Buddhist to use this book. Unfortunately, many people
perceive Buddhism as a religion propagated by a particular historical teacher,
the Shakyamuni Buddha, that is intended to benefit only the followers of
this tradition.

Buddhism is a universal path. Its aim is to realize universal
truth, the fully enlightened state, Buddhahood. According to Shakyamuni
Buddha himself, an infinite number of beings realized Buddhahood before
he was born. There are, were, and will be Buddhism, the path, and Buddhas
(those who have realized enlightenment) in this world as well as other
worlds, in the past, present, and future. It is true that almost twenty-five
hundred years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha propagated teachings that became known
as Buddhism. The Buddhism taught by Shakyamuni is one of the appearances
of Buddhism, but it is not the only one. People whose minds are open will
hear the true way, which Buddhists call Dharma, even from nature. The Dharmasamgiti
says: "People who have mental well-being, even if the Buddha is not present,
will hear Dharma from the sky, walls, and trees. For seekers whose minds
are pure, teachings and instructions will appear just by their own wishes."

Buddhism recognizes the differences in cultures and practices
of people around the world, and in individual upbringings and personalities.
Many other cultures and religions have traditions of healing, and offer
specific advice about suffering. Even in Tibet there are many approaches
to Buddhism. Having different approaches is good, even if they sometimes
appear to contradict one another, because people are different. The whole
purpose is to suit the needs of the individual.

MEDITATION, MIND, AND BODY

Healing through meditation is not limited to a particular
religious belief. Nowadays, many physicians trained in conventional Western
medical science are recommending traditional methods of meditation as a
way to restore and maintain mental and physical health. These practices
rarely acknowledge the experience of what Buddhists call the true nature
or the great openness, but instead emphasize visualization and the development
of a positive attitude and positive energy. High blood pressure, which
in many cases is created and aggravated by mental stress, is particularly
responsive to such alternative treatments. Some physicians recommend concentrating
the mind on a physical point where the muscles are contracted and then
consciously releasing those muscles, so that relief and relaxation will
result. This technique follows the same principle as the Buddhist way of
recognizing a problem and loosening the grasping at it.

Healing is most effective if it is accompanied by any
spiritual belief or meditation experience. Herbert Benson, M.D., of Harvard
Medical School, who originated the Relaxation Response, writes: "If you
truly believe in your personal philosophy or religious faith--if you are
committed, mind and soul, to your world view-- you may well be capable
of achieving remarkable feats of mind and body that we may only speculate
about."

Bernie Siegel, M.D., a surgeon and professor at Yale University,
describes some of the benefits of meditation: "It tends to lower or normalize
blood pressure, pulse rate, and the levels of stress hormones in the blood.
It produces changes in brain-wave patterns, showing less excitability.
. . . Meditation also raises the pain threshold and reduces one's biological
age. . . . In short, it reduces wear and tear on both body and mind, helping
people live better and longer."

Many journalists, like Bill Moyers, have long noted the
relation of mind and body to health. Here is what Moyers says in his introduction
to the book Healing and the Mind, based on the Public Broadcasting System's
television series.

I suppose I've always been interested in the relation
of mind and body, growing up as I did in a culture that separated them
distinctly. . . . Yet every day in this divided world of mind and body,
our language betrayed the limitations of our categories. "Widow Brown must
have died of a broken heart--she never got sick until after her husband
was gone." My parents talked about our friend the grocer, who "worried
himself sick," and my uncle Carl believed that laughter could ease what
ailed you long before Norman Cousins published his story about how he coped
with serious illness by watching Marx Brothers movies and videos of "Candid
Camera."

In recent years, Western medical science has begun to
take a closer look at mind and body, and to examine the connection between
the mind, emotions, and health. In the 1970s researchers found evidence
of what they called neurotransmitters, chemical messengers to and from
the brain. Some neurotransmitters, called endorphins and enkephalins, act
as natural painkillers. Others seem to be related to particular states
of mind, such as anger, contentment, or mental illness.

Research is continuing on the biological links between
the brain, the nervous system, and the immune system. Although Western
medical science is not the topic of this book, discoveries in this area
are very interesting. New evidence about mind and body is always welcomed
and may benefit many people. However, the basic idea behind the research
is actually very old. Buddhism has believed in the importance of the mind
for many centuries, long before modern theories of molecular biology were
advanced.

TIBETAN MEDICINE'S APPROACH TO SPIRITUAL HEALING

In Buddhism, the mind generates healing energies, while
the body, which is solid and stable, grounds, focuses, and strengthens
them. The main text of Tibetan medicine is the Four Tantras (Gyud zhi),
which Tibetans see as a terma, or mystical revelation, discovered by Trawa
Ngonshey in the eleventh century. According to these ancient texts, the
root of all sickness of mind and body is grasping at "self." The poisons
of the mind that arise from this grasping are ignorance, hatred, and desire.

Physical sicknesses are classified into three main divisions.
Disharmony of wind or energy, which is generally centered in the lower
body and is cold by nature, is caused by desire. Disharmony of bile, which
is generally in the upper body and is hot, is caused by hatred. Disharmony
of phlegm, which is generally centered in the head and is cold by nature,
is caused by ignorance. These categories--desire, ignorance, and hatred--as
well as the temperatures associated with them can still be very useful
today in determining which meditation exercises might be most helpful,
depending on the individual's emotional state and nature.

According to Tibetan medicine, living in peace, free from
emotional afflictions, and loosening our grip on "self" is the ultimate
medicine for both mental and physical health.

What is this "self" that has come up now several times
in this book? The Buddhist view of self is sometimes difficult for people
outside this tradition to understand. Although you can meditate without
knowing what the self is, some background on the self will make it easier
to do the healing exercises presented later.

Language can be tricky when we are talking about great
truths. In an everyday sense, it is quite natural and fine to talk about
"myself" and "yourself." I think we can agree that self-knowledge is good,
and that selfishness can make us unhappy. But let's go a bit further and
examine the deeper truth about self as Buddhists see it.

WHY WE ARE SUFFERING

Our minds create the experience of both happiness and
suffering, and the ability to find peace lies within us. In its true nature,
the mind is peaceful and enlightened. Anyone who understands this is already
on the path to wisdom.

Buddhism is centered on the principle of two truths, the
absolute truth and the relative truth. The absolute is that the true nature
of our minds and of the universe is enlightened, peaceful, and perfect.
By the true nature of the mind, Nyingma Buddhism means the union of awareness
and openness.

The relative or conventional truth is that in the whole
spectrum of ordinary life--the passing, impermanent earthly life of birth
and death that Buddhists call samsara--the world is experienced as a place
of suffering, ceaseless change, and delusion, for the face of the true
nature has been obscured by our mental habits and emotional afflictions,
rooted in our grasping at "self."

In Western thought, "self" usually means personhood, or
the ego consciousness of "I, me, and mine." Buddhism includes this meaning
of self, but also understands "self" as any phenomenon or object-- anything
at all--that we might grasp at as if it were a truly existing entity. It
could be the self of another person, the self of a table, the self of money,
or the self of an idea.

If we grasp at these things, we are experiencing them
in a dualistic way, as a subject grasping at an object. Then the mind begins
to discriminate, to separate and label things, such as the idea that "I"
like "this," or "I" don't like "this." We might think, "this" is nice,
and attachment comes in, or "that" is not so nice, then pain may come.
We may crave something we do not have, or fear losing what we have, or
feel depressed at having lost it. As our mind gets tighter and tighter,
we feel increasing excitement or pain, and this is the cycle of suffering.

With our "relative" or ordinary mind, we grasp at self
as if it were firm and concrete. However, self is an illusion, because
everything in the experience of samsara is transitory, changing, and dying.
Our ordinary mind thinks of self as something that truly exists as an independent
entity. But in the Buddhist view, self does not truly exist. It is not
a fixed or solid thing, but a mere designation labeled by the mind. Neither
is self an independent entity. In the Buddhist view, everything functions
interdependently, so that there is nothing that has a truly independent
quality or nature.

In Buddhism, the law of causation is called karma. Every
action has a commensurate effect; everything is interdependent. Seeds grow
into green shoots, then into trees, then into fruits and flowers, which
produce seeds again. That is a very simple example of causation. Because
of karma, our actions shape the world of our lives. Vasubandhu, the greatest
Mahayana writer on metaphysics, said: "Due to karma deeds various worlds
are born."

Grasping creates negative karma--our negative tendencies
and habits. But not all karma is negative, although some people mistakenly
think of it this way. We can also create positive karma, and that is what
healing is about. The tight grip on self creates negative karma. Positive
karma loosens that grip, and as we relax, we find our peaceful center and
become happier and healthier.

WE ARE ALL BUDDHA

Buddhists believe that all beings possess Buddha- nature.
In our true nature we are all Buddhas. However, the face of our Buddha-nature
is obscured by karma and its traces, which are rooted in grasping at self,
just as the sun is covered by clouds.

All beings are the same and are one in being perfect in
their true nature. We know that when our mind is natural, relaxed, and
free from mental or emotional pressures and situations that upset us, we
experience peace. This is evidence that the uncontaminated nature of the
mind is peaceful and not painful. Although this wisdom, the true nature
that dwells in us, has been covered by mental defilements, it remains perfect
and clear. Nagarjuna, founder of the Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism,
writes:

Water in the earth remains unstained.

Likewise, in the emotional afflictions,

Wisdom remains unstained.

Nagarjuna speaks of peace and freedom as our own "ultimate
sphere," which is within us all the time if we only realize it:

In the womb of a pregnant woman,

Although there is a child, we cannot see it.

Likewise, we do not see our own "ultimate sphere,"

Which is covered by our emotional afflictions.

Peace is within us; we need not look elsewhere for it. By
using what Buddhists call "skillful means," including meditation exercises,
we can uncover this ultimate sanctuary. Nagarjuna describes the ultimate
sphere--the great openness, the union of mind and universe--this way:

The "ultimate sphere" enveloped in the vase of mental
afflictions is not visible for us.

In whatever part of the vase you make a hole,

From that very part, light from the lamp will shine forth.

When the vase of mental afflictions is destroyed through
vajra-like meditation,

The light shines unto the limits of space.

Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, says in Haivajra:

Living beings are Buddha in their true nature,

But their nature is obscured by casual or sudden afflictions.

When the afflictions are cleansed, living beings themselves
are the very Buddha.

Buddahood, or enlightenment, is "no-self." It is total, everlasting,
universal peace, openness, selflessness, oneness, and joy. For most people,
the prospect of total realization of enlightenment is very foreign and
difficult to understand. The purpose of this book is not to go beyond self,
not to be fully enlightened, but only to relax our grip on self a little
bit, and to be happier and healthier. Even so, it may be helpful to have
an idea of what is meant by total openness and oneness.

The stories that we hear about "near-death experiences,"
of nearly dying but coming back from death, can provide us with insight.
Many people who have survived the process of dying describe traveling through
a tunnel and being met by a white light that touches them, giving them
a feeling of great bliss and peace. Yet the light is not something separate
from that experience. The light is peace. And they are the light. They
do not experience the light in the usual dualistic way, as someone seeing
light, as a subject and an object. Instead, the light, peace, and person
are one.

In one near-death story, a man tells of reviewing everything
that happened in his life, from birth until death--not just one event after
another, but his entire life simultaneously. And he didn't just see with
his eyes or hear with his ears, or even know with his mind; he had a vivid
and pure awareness of seeing, knowing, and feeling without distinctions
among them. In such a case, when limits and restrictions are gone, there
is oneness. With oneness, there is no suffering or conflict, because conflict
exists only where there is more than one.

For Buddhists, such experiences are especially interesting
because they could be a glimpse of the "luminous bardo of ultimate nature"--a
transitional period after death that, for people who have some realization
of the truth, transcends the realm of ordinary space, time, and concepts.
But such stories are not just about the experience of death; they also
tell us about the enlightenment that is possible while we are alive.

The enlightened mind is really not so foreign. Openness
is here within us, although we may not always recognize it. We can all
experience it at some important juncture in our life, or even as a glimpse
amid our everyday existence. We don't have to be near death. Although near-death
stories can be inspiring and interesting, enlightenment isn't just one
story or another. It is not "this" experience, or "that" way of looking
or being. Total openness is free from the extremes of "existing" and "not
existing"; nor is it both "existing" and "not existing"--or neither "existing"
nor "not existing." In other words, total openness cannot be contained
in concepts and descriptions.

THE PATH OF HEALING

Enlightenment is oneness, beyond grasping at self, beyond
duality, beyond happy or sad, beyond positive or negative karma. However,
when we talk of healing, as in this book, it is not necessary to be too
concerned with enlightenment. Realizing the true nature of our minds is
the ultimate healing, but the ordinary mind also has healing powers. We
can use our everyday, dualistic minds to help ourselves. Most of the exercises
in this book take this everyday approach to becoming more relaxed and happy.

So our aim is simply to go from negative to positive,
from sickness to healing. If we are already in a positive state for the
time being, we can learn how to maintain and enjoy that. However much we
loosen our grasping, that much better will we feel.

On a long journey, we may want to keep the ultimate destination
in mind, but it is good to take one day at a time and rest along the way.
If we want to relax our grip on self, we shouldn't try too hard. It is
better to take a gentle approach. Whatever steps we take, even if they
are small, the most important thing is to rejoice in those small steps;
then they become powerful. Always we should appreciate what we are able
to do, and not feel bad about what we haven't done.

To be a little more open, a little more positive, a little
more relaxed. These are the goals of this book. If we are newcomers to
meditation and spiritual training, it is important to be practical, to
use our knowledge of ourselves to see the right path to take. When we keep
an open attitude, suggestions about specific healing meditations can help
us swiftly along the path. The best guide of all is the wisdom within us.
We are not restricted to a few methods of meditation. Instead, all of life--thinking,
feeling, everyday activities and experiences--can be a means of healing.